Low sex drive? Try exercising less, study says

Published 2:07 pm, Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Find yourself with a waning sex drive (and you're not even working out)? Changing up your diet could help.

Media: Wibbitz

Intense exercise might give you a lean physique, but it could potentially slow down your sex drive, suggests a new study published this month by researchers at UNC Chapel Hill.

Previous studies have typically measured hormone levels in men, data which is easy to measure quantitatively. These scientists, however, put down their probes and asked men to talk about sex.

The researchers began by distributing a questionnaire to 1,100 physically active men that asked them how often they engaged in and thought about sex. A separate questionnaire probed participants' exercise habits.

Upon crunching the numbers, the scientists concluded that participants with the lowest and mid-range training intensities were more likely to have a high/normal libido. The researchers also found that participants who trained for shorter and mid-range durations had greater odds of a high/normal libido score than those who exercised for a long period of time.

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Want more sex? Try exercising less, one study says.

Want more sex? Try exercising less, one study says.

Photo: PeopleImages.com, Getty Images

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These are the cities that exercise the most, according to a report by24/7 Wall St.

The sample of men voluntarily elected to complete the survey, so the study hardly represents all men. Additionally, the data does not confirm that excessive exercise causes low libido, only that the two are linked.

Anthony Hackney, who led the study, told the New York Times that physical fatigue and lower testosterone levels associated with exercise likely account for dampened libidos.

Hackney's research stands out as one of the few studies that looks at men's exercise and its far-reaching impacts. Past studies have tended to look at hormonal imbalances in women.

This latest study hopes to add men to the conversation.

"Fertility specialists will often ask a woman about whether and how much she exercises," Hackney told the New York Times. "Based on our data, we think they should also be asking the man."

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